Becoming One with the Desktop

The bar at the bottom of your screen is the panel, also called Kicker. Among other things, notice the large K icon in the bottom left-hand corner. This is the Application Starter, similar to the Start button on that other OS. Clicking the big K will bring up a menu of menus—a list of installed applications that you can run with a single click.

Speaking of running things, Kicker also has a taskbar embedded in it. When you start an application, you'll see it listed in the taskbar. This not only shows you what you have running on your desktop, it also provides a quick way to switch from process to process. Just click on the program in the taskbar. Alternatively, you can press <Alt+Tab> to switch from one running program to another. The taskbar can be configured to list all processes from all desktops, group similar processes together, or simply show you what is on your current virtual desktop.